Hellgoat - End of Man [Boris Records - 2014]It’s tough to find a genuinely terrible, offensively shitty black metal band. I’m actually having a tough time coming up with the last time I heard an album that actually pissed me off due to how awful it was. The vast majority of the time, the worst black metal can get is simply derivative, uneventful, and altogether boring, as is the case on Hellgoat’s 7” EP End of Man. The basic premise behind End of Man is simple. What happened is as follows: the members of Hellgoat, tired of the interesting albums put out by other bands recently, took it upon themselves to craft the most inane, mind-numbingly generic piece of black metal of the month. That’s it. No more. No less.
There’s literally no reason for this EP to exist. From the shitty, supposed to be dark and scary intro on “Demonic Worship of the Horned Beast” to the tired riffs we’ve heard dozens of times before on albums we’ve since forgotten due to their mediocrity, End of Man sucks. I can’t think of a single redeeming feature on this EP. Sure, the musicians aren’t terrible, but their complete and utter lack of originality is infuriating. I’m somewhat surprised to report that Hellgoat has been active for nearly a decade now. A certain amount of imitation is expected from new bands trying to develop their own sound, but being this unoriginal for so long is inexcusable.
Well, there you go. This is just another example of a band scraping the bottom of the barrel in an embarrassing attempt to create music. I can’t think of a single reason to purchase this EP. It’s the kind of shit you can download from dozens of Bandcamps for free. It’s the kind of shit that makes you pissed off that you even listened to it. Tyler L.
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